“The value of scientific research and the benefits of Forest Growers Levy Trust funding will deliver projected savings in harvesting costs from automation and value-chain efficiencies amount to $5.00 per cubic metre from 2030” says Forest Growers Research Programme Manager Keith Raymond.

The 9-year $22.2 million Automation & Robotics research programme started in 2019 and aims to revolutionise forest harvesting and logistics operations, making them safer, more efficient and more sustainable.

This programme leverages $6.5M from Forest Growers Levy Trust funds with $5.4M of in-kind contributions from industry, $640,000 in direct funding from forestry companies and $9.6M of Government funding. Collaborators include the University of Canterbury, the Bioeconomy Science Institute, technology developers and manufacturing partners.

Many product innovations are underway, including:

• Commercially available remote-controlled felling wedges and tree jacks that enable forestry workers to fell trees from a safe distance.
• An automated quick coupler that enables rapid changeover of multiple attachments from within the cab of a single base machine so one operator can operate multi-function machinery.
• An automated cable yarder system that aims to control the yarder grapple from a bunching machine in the cutover and extract stems without an operator in the shovel yarder.
• Automated tools for measuring residual bark after debarking.
• A low-cost automated identification system for tracking and tracing logs that eliminates branding and use of paper log tags.
• Improving removal of residual biomass from harvested areas using modified slash grapples designed to pick up small pieces of slash.
• Automated log-load securing systems for safer transport that involves chain throwers, auto-tensioners and a load-monitoring system designed to monitoring tension on each chain and provide a warning to the driver if the tension drops.
• An automated log-sweep measurement tool that measures the sweep or curvature of each log in real time as it is processed.

The safety of workers is being enhanced through:

• A machine-maintenance tool that utilises augmented reality to make operator training faster and easier.
• A new heart-rate variability tool that can be used to evaluate stress and mental workload.
• Real-time biofeedback to help operators manage muscle tension and reduce fatigue.

Impact

A number of new automated-technology products are already being commercialised, and ten more products are in the pipeline for delivery by Dec 2027.

Other impacts include: improved productivity from smaller harvesting crews and fewer machines; value-chain efficiencies from automated of log tagging and measurement; and greater environmental sustainability from improved residue management and debarking. Forestry jobs are also becoming safer and easier by measuring and improving worker performance.

Keith says the key message is “harvesting automation is not coming – it is happening now!”.

Keith provided more detail on the Automation & Robotics research programme in a recent a webinar for the New Zealand Institute of Forestry (NZIF). The full presentation is available to NZIF members.